How do you save for Disney?

[bfamily5]

Not sure if it's a Canadian thing only, but we have payroll deduction for savings bonds . DH and I both have about $400/month going into that and on payday I transfer $20-$30 into my vacation account. The biggest challenge for our next trip is that it is a surprise for the 3 teenagers (who I insist bring their own spending money )

 

[disneymayz]

$5000 for the 3 of you (one of them being a new born)? First figure if you can shrink that down. Stay at a value. Don't eat so many TS meals. Eat breakfast in the room. There are ways to go to Disney cheaper than that. This June we (me, DW, DS6 and DD11) are going for 2 weeks and we are only spending $5000 (rented DVC points, APs, and $100/day food budget). How do we get the money - tax return and also there is 2 months out of the year that there is 3 pay checks. Our monthly budget is built on 2 pay checks a month, so the third is a bonus not needed for bills.

 

[bartleby1]

Definitely pay off your credit card and get one that gives rewards back. Always pay it off at the end of the month. I have the Disney visa which gives 1% back and also the chase freedom which gives 1% on all purchases but also has different 5% back categories which change every quarter. Make your credit cards work for you. We charge everything we can and come vacation time each year, we have a few hundred extra dollars to spend.

Buy Disney gift cards when you have some extra money. That way you can't dip into it for anything but Disney. I combine this with my chase freedom card to earn 5% back on them when they offer drugstores or grocery stores as one of their 5% back categories. BUT, that only wirks if you are disciplined enough to pay the card off each month! So, if you know you aren't going to be disciplined, just go buy them with the cash you have. Do not pay credit card interest!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

1. We use our Disney Chase for almost everything.

2. In 2013 - 2014 we will make 3 trips in one 12 month period, so we will buy APs which cuts down significantly on that cost.

3. We drive to Disney and use our car to go off property to eat for some meals. DH has a company car. We pay a set amount for personal use each month up to X miles and X miles is plenty for us, even with a Disney trip. That helps us out a lot, as I don't have to budget in gas or car or any of that, but we can go where we'd like when we'd like when we are at Disney.

4. We have an online savings account that is set up to take a small amount - about what we'd pay for one meal out - into it. We sometimes drop "found" money into it (overpaid on the escrow or money back for this or that) and sometimes will put birthday money into it.

5. Once in a blue moon, DH works OT. 80% of the time OT goes into the regular savings account, but once in a while we'll drop a few hundred into the Disney fund.

6. DH and I both have hotel points from their loyalty clubs. In a pinch, we can book one night at the beginning and/or end of our trip at a hotel in Ocala for just a few points. We either get up early and are at Disney for the parks by opening or we go to Disney and then drive to Ocala and go to bed really late. (A nice hotel in Ocala costs us only a few points. The same level of hotel in Orlando costs about 4x as many points.)

7. We bought DVC. This requires an upfront cost, but we know we'll go over and over again, so as a depreciating asset, it was a really good financial decision for us, but we don't have to worry about that cost anymore. Before we bought DVC, we used to rent a studio from someone on points. We got a deluxe accomodation in the style we like for a much, much better price than we could get a deluxe accomodation from Disney.

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks for the figures! 570 a month is not doable I guess I can forget about the nov trip, it'll have to wait till April next year.

You're not alone. I don't know too many people who would be able to find an extra $570 in their monthly budgets.

The good news is that by waiting until April of next year, you will have more opportunity to earn extra money and save for that trip. You also have more time to plan and seek deals to save money on that trip.

As someone else pointed out, you could probably do that trip for less money if you compromise on where you want to stay and how long. It may be cheaper to drive than it is to fly. You can save a lot by eating light meals in your resort room and bringing snacks into the parks. But if none of those suggestions fit into your idea of a Disney vacation, then the only answer is to save aggressively. To have $5K by next Apr, assuming that you don't raid the $1K nest egg that you have right now, you will need to set aside $360+ each month between now and April. If you are booking a package, you will need to increase that amount to a little over $420/month because final payments are due 45 days prior to arrival.

 

[bartleby1]

I posted earlier but was just thinking further about your post. Perhaps you could concentrate on lowering the cost of your vacation? Not sure how many people in your family, where you plan on staying, or how long you're planning on going for, but $5000 is a lot of money. You could probably scale your costs back to a more do-able cost.

 

[crisi]

You could also look at this proprotionally and work it from the other end

You make $75k. You probably take home more like $55k - probably less after health insurance, taxes, 401k, but lets use $55k.

You are talking about spending $10k a year on vacations.

That is 18% of your income. That would leave you $45k a year to live on - and certainly people live on less - but are you willing to, can you be comfortable?

Your numbers are probably different, and if I were doing this exercise for real I'd add in your obligations (mortgage, student loan, outstanding credit cards) to figure out what percentage of your disposable income you are wanting to spend. I suspect it isn't pretty and if you look at it that way, your desire to go that often and spend that much would shrink.

 

[malya2006]

$5000 for the 3 of you (one of them being a new born)? First figure if you can shrink that down. Stay at a value. Don't eat so many TS meals. Eat breakfast in the room. There are ways to go to Disney cheaper than that. This June we (me, DW, DS6 and DD11) are going for 2 weeks and we are only spending $5000 (rented DVC points, APs, and $100/day food budget). How do we get the money - tax return and also there is 2 months out of the year that there is 3 pay checks. Our monthly budget is built on 2 pay checks a month, so the third is a bonus not needed for bills.

Sorry we r a family of 5 now. Just had a baby 3 months ago. Sorry I wasn't clear. I can probably reduce it to 4g as a budget I just like having extra in case of emergencies. April is going to be easy to save up because its tax refund season and I get an annual bonus in feb. just wishing I could go in nov/ dec also since we didn't go at all this year but ill just be patient. Thanks!

 

[malya2006]

Definitely pay off your credit card and get one that gives rewards back. Always pay it off at the end of the month. I have the Disney visa which gives 1% back and also the chase freedom which gives 1% on all purchases but also has different 5% back categories which change every quarter. Make your credit cards work for you. We charge everything we can and come vacation time each year, we have a few hundred extra dollars to spend.

Buy Disney gift cards when you have some extra money. That way you can't dip into it for anything but Disney. I combine this with my chase freedom card to earn 5% back on them when they offer drugstores or grocery stores as one of their 5% back categories. BUT, that only wirks if you are disciplined enough to pay the card off each month! So, if you know you aren't going to be disciplined, just go buy them with the cash you have. Do not pay credit card interest!

Great idea thanks! I am looking into the disney cc. Hoping they approve me. And I will get disney cards when I have extra money at target since I get 5% off. Btw what can u get with the disney gift cards? Anything?

 

[LisaRae87]

I live on a very tight income at the moment and what I have found to work for me is that..

1) I write out all my bills/due dates and when I get paid in a planner that way I know exactly what is coming out of each deposit.

2) I signed up for Ebates, anything I buy online I do through a site supported by Ebates. They give you x% back on purchases. 1% at walmart but upwards of 25% or more at other places. The mail a check once a quarter. Any money I get from that - Disney Fund! This helps mostly around my DD's birthday and Christmas.

3) I use plink and shopkicks. Earn points for certain purchases and walking into places. Points = Gift cards. Gift cards = real money I don't have to spend and can save OR buy a Disney gift card. Shopkick gives points for purchases at The Disney Store (not online) so buy gift cards from there and earn more points.

4) When I get paid - I do any online shopping I plan to do for that 2 weeks then I go withdraw any money that is left in my checking that is not being used for bills - plus leave what I plan to use for gas since I get plink points for gas at 7/11.

5) Use only cash (unless I can get points) and save all my silver change (I hate pennies and counting them... they go in a diffferent jar) and place it in my disney money jar. I do not use my silver change at all - if something is $1.25 and I have a quarter - I still give them $2. I empty my wallet every couple days of silver change. When pay day hits again, any cash I have left - goes in the jar as well.

Number 5 alone has already helped me save - I have plans for a Character breakfast the week before DD's 3rd birthday in late June and knew I wouldn't have extra money around then since I have a party to throw and gifts to buy so I HAD to save it before hand. In just over a month or so I already have more than I need and everything else is going to save for new Seasonal Passes later in the year (HOPEFULLY)..

I haven't had a check from ebates since I started saving but will get one this month for about $8.. not a lot but still something. And I am currently saving my plink and shop kick points to cash in in early June to buy birthday gifts and then I will start saving them for Disney purposes. I am at $20 on plink already and about $15 on shopkick.

While a lot of people say to buy Disney gift cards as soon as you have money saved so you can't dip into it - I don't like to do this since I do live on such a tight income week to week, that way if I have an emergency or unexpected cost come up - I DO have the money to cover it, Disney comes 2nd to health and such. No credit cards to throw it on in an emergency and such.

These are just the things I do and may not work for you, hope you find something to help you meet your goals!

 

[malya2006]

I have a Capital One 360 savings account. I shovel everything I can into this account. Sometimes it is a hundred or two. Sometimes it is less than five dollars. But if it isn't in my checking account then I can't spend it.
I do MyPoints to earn gift cards for Disney.
I also do Swagbucks to earn Amazon cash. I use that Amazon cash for everything I can. That frees up cash to go in my savings account.

My guess is that you want to go in Nov/Dec to see the Christmas stuff. If that is why then I suggest you build Annual Passes into your April 2014 budget. Then look at Nov/Dec 2014. It gets a lot cheaper to go to Disney when you don't have to pay for tickets.

Figure out what bills you can cut. Does your AC need to be that low? Or can you change it by 2-5 degrees? It makes a difference. Do you really need all that cable? Are you watching all those channels? Can you replace cable with a Roku box and a subscription to Hulu Plus and Netflix?

Yes! I think it would be wonderful to see the Xmas decorations at disney! I will have to see bout the ap for 2014 as u mentioned. If I lived with just me and my kids we would have no cable, but my husband can't live without his Espn ugh. I'm opening a capital one savings today and thanks for the info on the apps!

 

[bartleby1]

Great idea thanks! I am looking into the disney cc. Hoping they approve me. And I will get disney cards when I have extra money at target since I get 5% off. Btw what can u get with the disney gift cards? Anything?

You can use disney gift cards to pay off your trip (room and/or tickets) directly thru disney. You can also use them for food, merchandise, etc at the parks. Any place that takes credit cards in the parks will take disney gift cards. I think there are only a few snack carts left that may be cash only. If you can get 5% off at target to buy them, that is a 5% discount on your trip already! Buy up as many as you can beforehand. HTH!

 

[nichanda]

Have you thought about staying at the Downtown Disney resorts rather than on property? We stayed at the Holiday Inn WDW last year, and the price was really good. They are technically still on Disney property, but aren't Disney hotels.

The DTD resorts have a wonderful busing system that is comparable to Disney busing system. It runs every half hour to the parks and is very reliable. I've stayed at a value property before, and prefer the DTD hotels better. They have a better location in my opinion (walkable to DTD).

The Holiday Inn had a mini fridge and microwave in every room, which is wonderful for in room snacks. We ate breakfast in our room every morning and saved money. There is a grocery store a 10 min walk up the road from here. The walk is a nice sidewalk path. Great walk. The rooms were nice and clean. The pool was lovely. There was a Disney gift shop in the hotel and some nice dining options.

DTD is also a 5-10 min walk. We walked there almost every day. I love this area. You are still in "the magic" but are close enough to the "border" you can walk up the road to some off site dining and shopping options.

http://www.downtowndisneyhotels.com/

Also, we bought our park tickets from Undercover Tourist. It was a bit cheaper than buying directly from Disney. They get really good reviews on here.

 

[malya2006]

You can use disney gift cards to pay off your trip (room and/or tickets) directly thru disney. You can also use them for food, merchandise, etc at the parks. Any place that takes credit cards in the parks will take disney gift cards. I think there are only a few snack carts left that may be cash only. If you can get 5% off at target to buy them, that is a 5% discount on your trip already! Buy up as many as you can beforehand. HTH!

That's awesome thanks! I'm assuming there are no limits on how many cards u use or no expiration dates. Thanks again!

 

[malya2006]

Have you thought about staying at the Downtown Disney resorts rather than on property? We stayed at the Holiday Inn WDW last year, and the price was really good. They are technically still on Disney property, but aren't Disney hotels.

The DTD resorts have a wonderful busing system that is comparable to Disney busing system. It runs every half hour to the parks and is very reliable. I've stayed at a value property before, and prefer the DTD hotels better. They have a better location in my opinion (walkable to DTD).

The Holiday Inn had a mini fridge and microwave in every room, which is wonderful for in room snacks. We ate breakfast in our room every morning and saved money. There is a grocery store a 10 min walk up the road from here. The walk is a nice sidewalk path. Great walk. The rooms were nice and clean. The pool was lovely. There was a Disney gift shop in the hotel and some nice dining options.

DTD is also a 5-10 min walk. We walked there almost every day. I love this area. You are still in "the magic" but are close enough to the "border" you can walk up the road to some off site dining and shopping options.

http://www.downtowndisneyhotels.com/

Also, we bought our park tickets from Undercover Tourist. It was a bit cheaper than buying directly from Disney. They get really good reviews on here.

We're going to stay at downtown disney on our third trip. The kids have their heart set on staying at the AoA family suite this time around but I would love to see what other hotels offer. I'll def look up the holiday inn

 

[SnowWhite]

We always throw ALL our loose change into a jar. Being Canadian it does add up faster because we have 1 and 2 dollar coins but we did start this year throwing in $5 bills as well. We started last November and we just counted and we have almost $800!! We quite often do day trips across the border to shop so we pick up disney gift cards at Target or Walgreens and so far we have $600 for our Sept trip. We almost always stay at a value and plan to go during free dining time, this year we are staying at a moderate because we are 5 now. We usually book the trip several months in advance so we can start making payments on the trip early whenever we feel we have a few extra dollars. Good luck with your saving!

 

[jimmiej]

I use a travel agent and pay a little every month. Right now that's $100-200. It's so little in our overall budget, I don't even notice it. Plus, a travel agent is alert for any and all discounts. We were able to upgrade from a value to a moderate for just a few dollars, due to the summer discounts Disney offered.

I booked our upcoming Disney Cruise on the first day available (about 18 months out), paid it off well ahead of time, and have now saved up several hundred dollars for excursions, pictures, souvenirs, etc.

You might also consider renting DVC points to save significant money.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/RentTrade-FAQ.htm

 

[ktmo]

I also opened a 360 Capital One savings account. I needed to have our vacation money separate from regular checking/savings. Now anytime I have a little extra, I transfer money over. I also put money in each week.

 

[Auntie Sherry]

When I worked full time I had a Disney account where a portion of my check was direct deposited right in to it every paycheck. It was enough so we could go every year. Now we live on one income but have no kids at home anymore, so I do things to raise the money and some extra things to save the money we have. I buy things at yard sales and sell them for more on ebay. I have had my own yard sale. I have picked blueberries for a local farm. I can make my own hours and I love being outside in the summer. I save my bottle returns and put that in my fund. To save money I hang out my laundry to dry in the good weather. I have a garden and nothing goes to waste I either can it or freeze it. I make my own pizza every friday instead of buying it. I make my own granola and crutons and lots of other things from scratch. I make homemade gifts for some people for birthdays and Christmas. I only grocery shop at Walmart becaue the food is less. I don't have to buy a lot of clothes for myself anymore since I don't have that kind of job. I only go to my hairdresser twice a year now. I do my own nails too. I love to do all kinds of crafts which can be expensive but I only buy stuff on sale or I find a lot of craft supplies at yard sales for a fraction of the cost. I don't buy coffe out. I have a kuerig but I feel the k cups are too expensive so I buy a big can of Hazlenut coffee and use the filter with it. I make my husband's coffe in a regular coffe maker because he likes just plain no flavors and very strong so now we can both have what we like with out the cost of the Kcups. I also get a low milage discount on my car insurance now that I don't drive to work everyday. Right now I am subbing two days a week as an assistant teacher at a daycare center that is only 4 miles away. I can wear jeans and my Disney tee shirts becaue we get messy playing with the kids. I am using the money for my next trip in December and if I like the job I can stay. Then I will have my extra Disney money right there. I just started and and so far it is a lot better then sitting in a cubicle like I did for 20 years.

 

[malya2006]

When I worked full time I had a Disney account where a portion of my check was direct deposited right in to it every paycheck. It was enough so we could go every year. Now we live on one income but have no kids at home anymore, so I do things to raise the money and some extra things to save the money we have. I buy things at yard sales and sell them for more on ebay. I have had my own yard sale. I have picked blueberries for a local farm. I can make my own hours and I love being outside in the summer. I save my bottle returns and put that in my fund. To save money I hang out my laundry to dry in the good weather. I have a garden and nothing goes to waste I either can it or freeze it. I make my own pizza every friday instead of buying it. I make my own granola and crutons and lots of other things from scratch. I make homemade gifts for some people for birthdays and Christmas. I only grocery shop at Walmart becaue the food is less. I don't have to buy a lot of clothes for myself anymore since I don't have that kind of job. I only go to my hairdresser twice a year now. I do my own nails too. I love to do all kinds of crafts which can be expensive but I only buy stuff on sale or I find a lot of craft supplies at yard sales for a fraction of the cost. I don't buy coffe out. I have a kuerig but I feel the k cups are too expensive so I buy a big can of Hazlenut coffee and use the filter with it. I make my husband's coffe in a regular coffe maker because he likes just plain no flavors and very strong so now we can both have what we like with out the cost of the Kcups. I also get a low milage discount on my car insurance now that I don't drive to work everyday. Right now I am subbing two days a week as an assistant teacher at a daycare center that is only 4 miles away. I can wear jeans and my Disney tee shirts becaue we get messy playing with the kids. I am using the money for my next trip in December and if I like the job I can stay. Then I will have my extra Disney money right there. I just started and and so far it is a lot better then sitting in a cubicle like I did for 20 years.

Great ideas ! I'm trying my hardest to cut down on costs! Thanks for all ur tips. I love the idea about kcups!